Old Fashioned Cinnamon Toast

Name: Old Fashioned Cinnamon Toast
Total time: 17 min
Ingredients: 8 slices regular white, thick, or whole wheat bread; 2 sticks softened salted butter; 1/2 cup granulated sugar; 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon; 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

I’m sharing a recipe for old fashioned cinnamon toast that originated from the seventies. I guess it really is old fashioned! You’ll see the easiest recipe that comes out smelling and tasting totally amazing.

In this recipe, you won’t see a piece of toast that’s slathered with butter and then sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.

As simple and easy as this recipe is, it tastes like cinnamon heaven.

The short history behind my recipe…

The background from the original recipe is from when I was living on the north shore of Long Island, New York.

While in junior high. (We didn’t call it middle school in the 70s and 80s)

I was in 7th grade at the time. First year of junior high school and first year to start home economics.

Home Ec for short.

The class was a mandatory subject all those years ago.

I do know that the class is offered since I have a fourteen year old boy who took it last year in middle school.

Way back when I took the class, believe it or not, it was just for girls.

How things have changed.

I remember so clearly how the kitchens looked in that classroom.

It was a huge classroom on the bottom floor of the junior high building.

The back wall were all windows that overlooked one of the playgrounds.

There were four kitchens set up. Two were a pale green color and the other two kitchens were a faded pink color. I’m talking about the cabinets and counter tops.

I can’t believe I remember what they looked like!

The refrigerators matched the cabinets.

Each kitchen also had a small rectangle Formica kind of table with the metal going around the sides of the table.
Four sturdy chairs with the seats and backs the color of the cabinets.

Getting back to making old fashioned cinnamon toast…

Cinnamon toast was the very first recipe we made in home economics class.

All the girls were so excited. We were told that after we made each recipe they would give us time to sit in the little assigned kitchens and eat the final result.

But, not before we finished washing whatever utensils and other kitchen items used to make that particular recipe.

Just making this simple recipe was thrilling for me and I’m sure most of the girls in the class.

For twelve and thirteen year old girls that never really cooked before it really was a thrill.

I remember like it was yesterday how the whole classroom smelled while the cinnamon toast was in the oven. Beyond wonderful.

When we took the sheet pan out of the oven which was lined with aluminum foil, we couldn’t wait to take the first bite.

We each got to make two slices per person.

That first day, the teacher gave each of us our own set of ovenmits and had to remove the hot pieces of cinnamon toast using a spatula.

Taking turns of course.

Then, we plated the two slices on the kind of dishes that the Brady Bunch ate on.

A melamine resin plate.

Of course each piece of the sets in each kitchen matched the cabinets.

Shades of pink and green.

If you dropped any of the dishes, they just bounced. They didn’t break.

Time to eat…

When we finally sat down and took our first bite. I still have to say to this day, as simple and easy that recipe was, it was the best thing I had ever eaten.

This is why I make cinnamon toast all the time!

I never tire of it and neither does my family.

Now, my son makes it on Sunday mornings for all of us. Using my original recipe.

A handful of basic ingredients is all that’s needed for simple decadence.

I hope you enjoy this retro recipe and that it may bring back happy childhood memories for you too.

The last recipe we made when the class ended was, Baked Alaska.

Fancy stuff. Well, we thought so at the time.

It was an exciting day as well as a sad one since the class was over for the semester.

One more thing, I got a grade of 100 for that class. Maybe that’s why I became a caterer and now food blogger. All from the love of home economics class.